Official PayPal App Quietly Published On Nokia’s Ovi Store

PayPal has quietly released a mobile application for Nokia devices on the Finnish mobile phone maker’s Ovi Store marketplace, a tipster points out.

Indeed, while I can’t find the app from where I’m searching (Belgium), other TechCrunchers in the United States can find the app just fine (see screenshots above and below). I’ve also tracked down blog posts from eagle-eyed bloggers in France and Italy.

The application is free, but apparently lacks support for displaying in landscape mode and consumes an excessive amount of RAM according to some early users.

According to the blog posts linked above, the application functions much like its iPhone, Android and BlackBerry siblings: you can use it to send money, manage your account, split a check and transfer money to your bank account.

From what I can gather, the app was made available on the Ovi Store earlier this week with very little fanfare. I’ve asked PayPal for confirmation as they have yet to effectively announce the existence of any mobile applications for Nokia handsets, and requested a list of countries in which the app can be downloaded from Nokia’s Ovi Store.

It is important news for an obvious reason: Nokia remains the world’s largest manufacturer of mobile phones with a global device market share of 31% in the fourth quarter of 2010.

PayPal, meanwhile, says it supports more than 94 million active accounts in 190 markets and 24 currencies around the world.